pepper update, Monday 11/7/16

Temperatures flirted with frost last night, so I brought my plants in to stand on my kitchen table overnight. I moved them back outside around 11:30 this morning.

I am trying not to pick any of the peppers until they start properly ripening -- aka, turning orange-red -- both because they taste mellower then and because it provides a more interesting color contrast in anything I cook. (I always buy green bell peppers at the store, because they are significantly cheaper than red bell peppers. Sometimes I get lucky and a few of the green peppers are just starting to shade yellow-orange in a few places.)


.
1) seven peppers indoors on my kitchen table, Monday, 7 November 2016
2) seven peppers back outdoors an hour later, Monday, 7 November 2016


.
3) the Lazarus pepper, ALMOST BLOOMING
4) the decapitated pepper, with its slightly yellow and squishy fruits


( 5 more photos under the cut )

[[original Tumblr post, for when the embedded images inevitably break]]

the return of the narcissus!

So last year, as part of my church's winter solstice service, I received a partially sprouted narcissus bulb. (I think it is a paperwhite narcissus? Anyway, a very pretty flower!) I duly planted it, and was pleased when it grew and bloomed in the darkness of January.

Eventually the petals dropped and the green stems withered (as flowers do), but the bulb remained (as bulbs do) and I have kept it sitting in its little pot through spring, summer, and autumn... and tonight I noticed that it is starting to grow again. :)

I intend to stick actual dirt in the pot sometime soonish, but in the meantime does anyone have advice as to whether I should water the bulb or just leave it alone, how much ambient light it should get, and whether I should trim away last year's roots?


[[original Tumblr post, for when the embedded images inevitably break]]